Round hay bales are typically formed in a cylindrical shape and weigh more than 1000 pounds. As a result, round hay bales are normally transported by tractors or skid steer loaders on spear-like carriers designed to impale the end of the cylindrical bale. Dispensing the hay to the animals is often the process of dropping the round bale on the ground in an open area for access by the animals to be fed. Such a feeding process exposes the hay to contamination from ground moisture, the weather, animal wastes and dirt. Furthermore, the hay can become a marking territory for the dominant horses and bedding material for others. Accordingly, this feeding process generally wastes up to 50% of the hay with respect to being available for feed for the animals. Therefore, feeding animals in the open range or pasture by dropping the round hay bale on the ground increases feeding costs. Furthermore, since a round bale of hay under these conditions is not likely to last for four days for four horses during the winter, increased costs of transporting additional round bales also adds to the cost of feeding hay to the animals.
Most round bale feeders that are commercially available are designed to minimize the waste issues associated with the dropping of the round bale onto the ground, but are more generalized for use by stock farm animals and are not particularly well adapted for use by horses. Horses are herd animals that instinctively rely on large numbers for safety. Horses are easily spooked and move quickly when startled by noise, smells, strong winds and even other dominant horses. Injuries to horses are often self-imposed when yielding to more dominant horses. When near feeders that have sharp edges or protrusions, horses often jump without looking and land hard on the edges or protrusions and receive corresponding injuries. Furthermore, horse can become entangled in conventional hay feeders when attempting to jump over the feeder to avoid being kicked or bitten by other more dominant horses.
Forage crop materials, other than round bales of hay, can also be provided to animals as a food source in the field. Examples of such other forms of forage crop material include large rectangular bales of hay, small and medium sized rectangular bales of hay, loose hay and straw. Large bales of hay, like the large round bales, require mechanization to handle the bales from formation to placement for access by the animals. Rectangular hay bales are typically formed more densely than round bales and usually require the binders (whether wire or twine) to be removed to allow the animals to access the material in order to be able to eat it. Once the binder devices have been removed from the rectangular bales of hay, the integrity of the bale disintegrates and needs to be contained in some manner to minimize loss before the animals can eat the material.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a feeder apparatus that could be utilized in the feeding of different packaging of hay by depositing the bales onto the feeder apparatus to provide proper access to the material by the animals. Such feeders will be desired in many different configurations depending on the particular packaging of the hay being dispensed and the amount of hay to be provided. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a panel member that could be utilized to form all of the different feeder apparatus configurations.